Vacancies hobble 'problematic' department

Johannesburg, 22 Aug 2007

The Department of Communications has been forced to retain the services of consultants due to "lack of capacity".

Yesterday, communications spokesman Albi Modise said the department's vacancy rate is 37%, with only 326 of its 516 posts filled.

However, he maintains the high vacancy rate is no cause for concern.

"I wouldn't want to downplay the fact that we have some skills shortages, but I don't think there is a skills crisis [in the department]. We've had rough rides, where positions were held by acting people, but we have since filled the required posts. All key positions in the department have been filled," says Modise.

The 326 filled posts include core positions that facilitate the department's ability to deliver on its mandate, he adds.

Strategy outsourced

In response to questions submitted by the Democratic Alliance (DA), the department last week told Parliament it had spent almost R40 million on consultants in the 2006/07 financial year.

This included the appointment of Ernst & Young for the implementation of a risk assessment programme and management strategy; ForgeAhead for the development of an ICT small and medium enterprise (SME) strategy; and Ehlobo Advisory consultants for the development of a multi-stakeholder strategy.

However, Modise argues the outsourced projects do not form the core of the services the department is mandated to deliver. Thus, the department was doing no more than it should to source skills it needed for specific projects.

"We use consultants when we begin to look at an issue so we can learn from international experience. But the implementation would be done internally."

An example of such a project is the SME strategy, which he says will be implemented internally.

No confidence

Meanwhile, DA communications spokesperson Dene Smuts says the high job vacancy rate is undoubtedly a by-product of the "highly problematic" department.

"The appointment of Harold Wesso [as deputy director-general of policy development] will hopefully help to bring the department in line. However, I very much doubt they will be able to fill its outstanding positions with the right people. Given its performance, perhaps it would be better if they didn't fill the positions at all."

However, Modise says the communications department is going through a process where it is undertaking job profiling to ensure it has the right mix of core and support staff.

If it does not do this exercise, then the department could find itself outsourcing work that should have been done internally, he concludes.